V.A.O.

by Geoff Ryman

1-902880-48-X

65pp/£8.00/2002

Geoff
Ryman presents a cautionary tale of the near future in which the cost of
managed care has become increasingly unaffordable in V.A.O..Although some lucky people who have massive savings can afford to
live in placed like Happy Farms, others, like Ryman’s protagonist,
Alistair Brewster, must resort to illegal means to garner the necessary
cash to pay for their lifestyle.Many
more retirees are finding themselves out on the streets, trying to eke out
an increasingly difficult living.

Ryman
manages to infuse humor into the proceedings while also examining societal
problems which already exist and will only get worse in the future and the
number of retirees grows and the average lifespan lengthens.Brewster is in better shape than many, not because of his
successful experimentation with Victim Activated Ordinance, the V.A.O. of
the title, but because he is able to hack his way into other people’s
bank accounts to siphon off enough to not only pay his living expenses,
but also provide some graft for the director of the facility.

Brewster’s
attention turns to life outside Happy Farms after his granddaughter is
attacked by a gang of old men who have adapted V.A.O. to fail to recognize
people in its database.When
the security system turns on them, the old men go in for their robbery.Given his own ties to V.A.O., the authorities suspect
Brewster has something to do with the gangs, possibly even being their
leader, the enigmatic Silhouette.Brewster
decides that finding out the identity of the Silhouette is his only way of
clearing his name.

The
identity of the Silhouette is reasonably obvious from his earliest
mention, but the way in which Ryman makes that information known to
Brewster is both credible and interesting, managing to carry through the
reasonably short story without seeming to be stretched thin by the author.

Although
Ryman provides only small roles for most of his supporting characters, the
other residents of Happy Farms come across as interesting and just a bit
mischievous.They have
the appearance of teenagers who refuse to believe that they’ve actually
grown up and still want to have the adventures that they remember from
their youth.This feature
makes them seem extremely sympathetic and helps drive home that fact that
anyone who lives long enough will be in the same general position of these
residents of Happy Farms.

V.A.O. is an excellent mystery story couched in terms of
upcoming social problems.Although
Ryman doesn’t explore real solutions to those problems, he does raise
awareness of them in the course of the story.